Under Duress

by Meghan Carver

  Samantha glanced back at Reid. He leaned against the wall next to the door and shrugged at her, but a telltale crease in his brow conveyed his concern for her treatment here. She turned back to the officer. She risked making the situation with Cody worse, but she had to ask. “Is there anyone else I can talk to?”

  “You don’t need anyone else, ’cause they’ll all say the same. Fill out the form.” He tossed a smirk at Reid then returned his focus to Samantha. “But if you want to come back when my shift ends at eleven, I’d be happy to help you personally with whatever you need.”

  She just couldn’t stop it. She rolled her eyes, so far back and at such a speed that pain shot through her skull. There was some big guy out there trying to kidnap her and Lily, and now she had to deal with a reunion with Reid Palmer, a man who would never have been voted Most Likely to Succeed in law school. The last thing she needed in her life right now was some tough guy trying to pick her up. Between her father’s betrayal and her—ahem—near indiscretion in college, she had had enough of bad boys thinking they were tough and desirable and strutting around like peacocks.

  Fine. She plastered on a smile as she completed the form. No sense in burning bridges, although she wasn’t sure any bridge had even been built. “I can’t leave a phone number because my screen is shattered and the phone won’t receive any calls.”

  A throat cleared behind her, and Reid stepped up to the counter. “Put down my phone number.” He scribbled on the form and passed it to Cody. “I’ll make sure she gets any information if you call me.”

  Cody hesitated but reached into a drawer and withdrew a business card. He handed it to Samantha. “You can call this number to check for updates, but if you find yourself in an emergency, of course call nine-one-one.” He skimmed the paper. “We’ll send an officer to the church, but there isn’t much we can do at this point.”

  “Thank you for your help.” She turned away from the desk and toward the door, pulling on Lily’s hand. She stared at the rectangular shape, a portal into a world that was now dark with storm clouds and filled with foreboding. Where would she and Lily be sleeping tonight if that thug found them? Would they be sleeping at all? Nothing had changed, though, in his intentions. He had had the chance to kill them, and he hadn’t. If the bad guy was smart at all, he would know where they lived. And once he got whatever he was after, then what would he do?

  Reid pushed away from the wall and opened the door, a look of disappointment etched across his face. At least he wasn’t saying, “I told you so.”

  Cody’s last jeer propelled her toward the exit. “Let your boyfriend take you home.”

  Boyfriend?

  She pushed outside, Lily in tow. Reid’s voice filtered over the couple of cars driving past on the street as he said a cordial “see you later” to the officer. She stopped abruptly on the bottom step and scanned the parking lot. Lily rested her head against Samantha’s arm. The poor girl was probably tired, hungry and scared. Samantha would have to be strong for her. Tears threatened, stinging the backs of her eyelids. The only thing she could do now was call a cab and go home. The problems with that plan were that she had no phone to call with, and Heartwood Hill didn’t have a cab service. The suburb was so small there wasn’t even a bus system. She could call a cab from Indianapolis, but how long would she have to wait, and how much would she have to pay? She refused to wait inside the police station with Cody.

  She jabbed a tear from her cheek. She probably shouldn’t go home, though. Surely that man with the gun would find her eventually.

  A gentle hand touched her shoulder. Reid stepped in front of her. “Can I give you a ride?”

  An answer stalled in her throat. If she accepted his offer of a ride, she didn’t need a phone or a cab. Problem solved. Then why was she having trouble answering? She swiped a hair off her cheek as the truth stabbed at her heart. She worked too much, bringing forever families together through adoption. As wonderful as that was, it didn’t allow for much of a social life or the formation of friendships with girlfriends she could call for help at a moment’s notice. She was estranged from her father. Hadn’t spoken to him in more than a year. And her most reliable relationships, with her mother and her twin sister, wouldn’t help her now since they were on the other side of the country at a church conference.

  For a reason she couldn’t fathom, she didn’t want to share that information with Reid.

  She wanted to tell him that she didn’t need the help of any man. That her father’s betrayal and desertion when she was just a teenager had torn a hole in her heart. That the guy in college who had turned out to be such a manipulator had ripped that gap wide-open.

  She must have been scowling because a confused, even sad, expression shadowed Reid’s face. Was he hurt by her silence? She had been treated so callously over the years that there was no way she would bring her wall down now.

  But neither did she want to be rude. She took a deep breath and forced herself to look into Reid’s vivid blue eyes. “I would appreciate that.” His strong presence was comforting, even though she didn’t want to admit it.

  She slid into the front seat of the Jeep as Lily climbed into the back. This time it was a bit more willingly, but then why were her palms slicked with perspiration? As her seat belt clicked into place, she shot up a prayer that Reid would be more helpful than the officer at the station.

  And that he’d left his bad-boy persona in his past.

  THREE

  Reid scrubbed a hand over his face and down his neck. Since they had left the station a scant ten minutes ago, that girl, Lily, had talked of half a dozen things including her favorite book, her new shoes and how hard it was to remember the multiplication tables. He should probably be grateful that she felt safe and comfortable in his ride. Perhaps those feelings would transfer over to her guardian, who even now refused to relax against the back of the seat and kept darting her gaze to the left and to the right.

  The low-fuel bell dinged. Reid slumped his shoulders. Now? He turned toward his passengers but kept his view on the road. “We have to get gas first, and then we’ll figure this out. But you should be thinking of who you can stay with tonight.”

  “Stay with?” Samantha sounded doubtful of anything other than going home.

  “Like a sleepover? The late, late movie with popcorn and snacks.” Lily wiggled in her seat.

  “We’ll see.” But Samantha sounded just like his own mother when she really meant “no way.”

  Reid meticulously obeyed the speed limit for a couple of miles from the station, out toward the interstate and a long array of commercial offerings. He pulled into the least expensive gas station and hit the brake next to the pump on the end, closest to the exit. His original plan had been to drive straight to his new digs and eat something cheap, like chow mein. His cash had to last him until he could secure a family law client base or an actual position, and he certainly hadn’t planned on chauffeuring an old school acquaintance around this evening, not even one with strawberry blond hair and an adorable smattering of freckles across her nose.

  Before he put the Jeep into Park, he surveyed the street and surrounding businesses. Samantha was right to be cautious, but there was no sign of a large black SUV. In fact, there weren’t any black vehicles at all. He cut the engine and left the keys in the ignition. “I’d rather not have to get gas right now, but better this than being stranded on the side of the road. You two stay in the Jeep. Leave the windows up and stay low.”

  Before he had the door half-open, the girl whined again from the backseat. “I’m hungry, Sam. Can’t I run inside and get a bag of chips and a pop? Maybe some of those little chocolate cupcakes or a candy bar? You know, something to tide me over until we get wherever we’re going.” Her voice took on a wheedling tenor. “I can get something for you, too.”

  Reid shook his head. What a study in the art of ca
joling. He turned to see Samantha shaking her head no and reaching through the front seats to pat Lily’s hand. “We’ll get something soon, I promise. But Mr. Palmer is right. We don’t want to take any chances. We don’t know that we’re out of danger.”

  Irritation at the predicament of an innocent woman and her ward bubbled up from a place deep within that he kept buried. A burial ground that concealed a childhood at the hands of an angry father, the very reason he had pursued a career in law enforcement so many years ago. There was no way he would allow himself to call that emotion what it truly was, even if he was fighting the urge to slam his fist into the dashboard. And what about that salvation that had swept over him just in time to save him from the dire consequences of himself? A verse bubbled up as he prayed, again, for peace and calm. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

  He glanced around the pumps one more time and slammed his door shut. What was this ride, though, if it wasn’t a favor? A rescue, even? Samantha probably thought he deserved that callous treatment. People with flawless pasts and perfect lives often looked down their noses at those who had had to fight for every inch of progress. And so far as he could tell, Samantha Callahan had lived a perfect life.

  A few long strides carried him across the stretch of gas station asphalt as he pinched the front of his shirt to fan away the summer heat. Inside the convenience store, he prepaid twenty bucks. It would have to do for now, at least until he figured out what to do with his ride-along.

  * * *

  Samantha hissed out a sigh and turned in her seat, peeking around the headrest but making sure she was hidden behind it. Reid was gone for a few moments, and then he strode back to the pump without even a glance in her direction. A scowl resided on his face. He was probably grouchy, irritated to have the two of them in his vehicle without a place to go. Whatever his plans had been, they hadn’t included Samantha and Lily.

  She picked at a fingernail. She probably had come across to him as just as grouchy. She usually did to people who knew her twin. Mallory, the forever optimist, the sweet, sunshine-and-daisies twin. It didn’t matter how friendly she tried to be, Samantha was the one who everyone perceived as serious and stoic. Add on to that a past filled with men who acted like jerks, and, well, it was enough to make a girl want to leave town and start over, except that she loved her twin as much as everyone else.

  Numbers ticked by on the gas pump, and Samantha scanned the station again. Reid had taken them to the police, and it had turned out exactly like he had said. The police, or at least that one officer, had thought there wasn’t much they could do.

  She dug back into the recesses of her mind, trying to dredge up memories of Reid. Even by law school, she had decided she didn’t need any men in her life, so she had largely ignored those around her, choosing instead to focus on her studies and her sister and mother. Reid was a bit older than she was and had had a different career before entering law school. But that wasn’t unusual, and she couldn’t remember anything else. Whatever his history, his reason for leaving the school had been the year’s scandal.

  “Sam?”

  Lily’s quiet voice broke through her reverie. “Hmm?”

  “Do you know Mr. Palmer?”

  Samantha craned her arm around the side of the seat to rub Lily’s back in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. However much Samantha needed reassurance that all would be well, Lily needed it more. “Sort of. We went to law school together for a year, but that was a while ago.”

  “Can we trust him?”

  Smart kid. “For now, I guess. He’s at least better than the guy who tried to nab you at the church. And he’s been more helpful than the officer at the station.”

  Lily pointed toward the busy street. “Why don’t we just get out and run to one of the fast-food places over there? Get away from Mr. Palmer and the bad guy, call someone for a ride, go home?”

  “That’s an interesting plan, but we don’t want to bother any friends. We’ve already bothered Mr. Palmer, and that’s quite enough.” It wasn’t something she wanted to admit often, but her dedication to her work came before friends. There was too much good to be done in the field of family law, helping desperate would-be parents secure forever families and uniting abandoned children with loving mothers and fathers, that she couldn’t justify taking personal time to cultivate relationships. In fact, Samantha couldn’t name anybody she could bother with a situation of this magnitude, especially with her immediate family on a trip so far away. “I want you to scrunch down back there. Don’t let your head pop up from behind the seat.”

  Lily slouched down, and Samantha raised the headrest a couple of inches so she could stay low behind it and still perform her surveillance. She wasn’t sure why, but she thought it was best to monitor what happened behind the vehicle rather than the front, even though Reid was in that direction at the gas pump. Surely it had nothing to do with his thick black hair and the navy polo that hugged his torso. Nothing at all to do with the protectiveness and feeling of security that emanated from him. Definitely nothing to do with his clean, soapy scent that lingered in the Jeep.

  She shook her attention away from Reid just as a monster black SUV pulled into a spot two pumps away.

  “Get down. More,” she whispered to Lily.

  Samantha clutched the seat fabric with shaking hands as she jerked down behind the seat. Was that the same SUV from the church? Reid was still out there. Would the thug recognize him from the accident site? His Jeep?

  She licked some moisture to her lips and inched up until she could see Reid through the space between the seat and the headrest. How could she just hide there and do nothing when Reid might give them away? Was he safe out there? The windows weren’t tinted enough to assure her that she and Lily were hidden, because she could still read the numbers on the pump ticking by and see Reid leaning against the Jeep, his face to the pump.

  A burly man stepped out of the SUV. He had removed his Colts cap and now wore wraparound sunglasses, but he was definitely the guy from the church parking lot and the site of the accident. The only reason a guy would wear sunglasses with thunderstorm clouds colliding overhead and nighttime settling over the town would be to avoid detection. If only her phone still worked, she could snap a picture, an image for Cody to run through facial recognition or something high-tech like that.

  A screech squeaked out, and Samantha clapped her hand over her own mouth.

  A second man wearing similar sunglasses emerged from the passenger side of the SUV and jogged inside the station, Samantha assumed to pay in advance with cash. She sagged in the seat. There were two guys after them now? The one hadn’t got them, so he’d brought in reinforcements? A few seconds later, he tossed a thumbs-up at the first thug. He lifted the nozzle and turned toward his vehicle, pausing, nozzle in hand, as he seemed to notice Reid. Samantha couldn’t track his eye movements with such heavy sunglasses and the tint of the Jeep’s windows, but his head turned a little as if he were studying the Jeep. Then his attention appeared to return to Reid.

  Her throat constricted and, gasping for air, Samantha slid over to the driver’s seat, working her skirt over the gearshift with trembling fingers. Staying low, she leaned toward the crack in the driver’s-side door and called to Reid in a stage whisper. “Reid! He’s here. That guy from the church. Are you done? I’m in the driver’s seat now.”

  Samantha tilted her head to peer through the sliver of open door. Reid seemed to stay calm as he surveyed the gas station. Keeping it low, he held a hand out, palm facing her, as if to say that he’d heard her and she should stay quiet.

  She twisted to dare another look at the thugs—plural now. The first, looking at the second, nodded in their direction. The first replaced the nozzle in the pump as if trying to act normal, then began a slow advance toward Reid.

  The second man slammed his passenger-side door shut a moment
later, the thud reverberating through the Jeep like the thunder that threatened in the clouds, and headed their way.

  Reid jerked the Jeep’s backseat door open and jumped in. “Go!”

  Samantha jumped at the rough sound of his command and sat upright. Her pulse quickened in her veins. “What about the nozzle?”

  “Trust me. Go!”

  She bit her lip, threw the Jeep into Drive and mashed the accelerator. The vehicle lunged forward. The nozzle broke free from the gas tank and clanked against the pump. At the sound, she hit the brakes.

  The squeal of the tires on the pavement made her want to clutch at her ears.

  “Go!” Another command from Reid, more terse this time. A glance in the rearview mirror revealed his position of surveillance. Lily crouched down in her corner of the backseat. “They know we’re here. They’re back in their SUV and following us.” Reid swiveled around and pointed out to the busy road. “Get out there. In the middle of traffic.”

  Samantha pulled away from the pump and nosed onto the highway, the black SUV filling the rearview mirror. Reid wanted her to get into the middle of traffic? Fine. But she prayed that the Lord would steer for her because she didn’t trust her shaking hands to maintain a grip.

  She urged the Jeep across two lanes of oncoming traffic, narrowly missing a minivan. She jerked the wheel to turn into the fast lane, and the Jeep teetered as if two wheels had left the ground.

  A UPS truck shot up next to her in the right lane. Where had that come from? The steering wheel fought against her as she struggled to right the Jeep, but her slick palms slipped off the wheel.

  The brown side panel of the truck filled the windshield and passenger-side window. She slammed the brakes. The Jeep screeched in a collision course with the truck.

  “Lily!” It was her last utterance before she closed her eyes and braced for impact.

  FOUR